Olympics Opening Ceremony, Multiculturalism and National Pride

Best of British

Friday’s Olympics opening ceremony was spectacular enough to tame the most cynical among us. From a technical perspective, the forging of the Olympic rings in a mock-up of Industrial Revolution Britain was simply incredible. But director Danny Boyle’s real triumph was in reminding a deeply unpatriotic nation that the British do have things to be proud of – and he focused on all the right things.

The ability to laugh at yourselves is a national asset, and the British are probably the world experts; so much so, that we tend to forget our national achievements. A reminder that this small island lit the spark that created a global industrial revolution – which is still underway – was timely. And that talent wasn’t a one-off. The 1940s creation of the computer by Alan Turing and the web in the 1990s by Tim Berners-Lee show a degree of consistency.

But it may have puzzled many viewers around the world to see an entire segment dedicated to our universal healthcare system. Our grandparents returned from the second world war only to vote out the hero Churchill and replace his government with the most left-wing one in British history, whose greatest achievement was the creation in 1948 of the NHS, along with a welfare state. The soldiers were no doubt grateful for Churchill’s war leadership, but their battle had been against a right-wing ideology, Fascism, which had attacked trade unions and workers’ rights. Having won that war, they returned home and expected Socialist ideas to triumph in Britain – and for a few years, they did.

So when a handful of online morons attacked the ceremony as “leftie”, they were kind-of right. Britain’s history is undeniably leftie in many aspects. It may have upset right-wing morons that the British celebrate the NHS as a national triumph, but the simple fact is: we do. Chief among morons on the night was right-wing Tory MP Aidan Burley:

The most leftie opening ceremony I have ever seen – more than Beijing,the capital of a communist state! Welfare tribute next?

Followed by:

Thank God the athletes have arrived! Now we can move on from leftie multi-cultural crap. Bring back red arrows, Shakespeare and the Stones!

And of course, finished off with the essential back-pedal:

Seems my tweet has been misunderstood. I was talking about the way it was handled in the show, not multiculturalism itself.

For those who haven’t heard of him before, Burley’s previous claim to fame was organising a Nazi-themed stag night. His tweets are so beautifully laden with ignorance and hatred; I can only send Mr Burley my heartfelt thanks for such excellent material. Besides the fact that he still seems to think China is a communist country (which decade is he living in?), a couple of points stand out:

He clearly loathes the celebration of Britain’s socialised healthcare system, as shown by “Welfare tribute next?” – but yes, why not a tribute to British welfare? Let’s remember for a moment that pre-war Britain, the world’s most powerful nation, had widespread malnutrition and preventable diseases, while post-war Britain, virtually bankrupt, managed to put shoes on children’s feet and food in stomachs far more widely than ever before in its history. We need to remember that lesson when morons today spin the “we can’t afford it” line. We can afford whatever we have the will to provide. Our national wealth is huge – the fact that much of it is siphoned away by a small, global elite is merely a new hurdle to overcome.

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